Price Lawrence, an elementary-school English teacher in the Huntsville, Ala., area, recounted in a Facebook post last week how one of his students touched his heart. Lawrence explained that his first-period students noticed he was not acting as he usually did one morning and informed his class that his wife’s father had died the weekend before. He said that after a few moments of condolences, the class pretty much returned to normal.

Until the end of the period.

Upon exiting the classroom, one student, the identity of whom the teacher didn’t reveal, embraced him and handed him a note and a stack of three quarters. “This is for your wife,“ the girl told him. “I know it was real expensive when my daddy died, and I don’t really want ice cream today anyways.” Her sincere donation of 75 cents, but most important her sympathy and honest feelings, touched Lawrence so much he had to share with the public.

“I wish more of the world would pay more attention to children,” he said in his social media post. “We could learn a lot from them.” It seems at least some of the world agrees. His touching Facebook post has chalked up well over 275,000 shares and 700,000 reactions.

While it’s likely the precious 75 cents the sixth grader gave up to help her teacher and his wife didn’t contribute much to often exorbitant costs of burying a loved one, we’re pretty sure she added immensely to the family’s emotional bottom line. Lawrence’s wife, also a teacher, shared her own reaction to the girl’s selfless contribution, offering that the girl’s gesture touched her “in the most positive way,” according to a Cox Media Group news report. As for the student, we have a feeling her touching condolence offering won’t be the last helpful gesture she’ll extend in her promising life.